Gyro Compass trouble

Some households here have three generations who have never worked , the local housing estate has fathers who have children with up to five mothers to my knowledge and mothers of five all fathered by different men . This minority gives a bad name to the majority , genuine youngsters cannot easily get jobs , and I saw RLYs post about legalising cannabis , but I honestly believe that it has caused a lot of the mental health issues on the local estate , as a lot of the class A users , not a majority but a significant minority are all Bi Polar .

Now you have a full 220 volts , so you need the sparky to clean the commutator , which if I am correct with the associated brush gear was a constant maintenance issue with the Gyros

Was never the sparkies job on the ships I was on, I assume you mean the Lecky and not the R/O. Wouldn't of had a sparky on a DC ship. The only regulator for voltage was the Carbon Pile. Think William was talking about repeaters so was probably an AC ship, but even so the sparky never touched the Gyro, unless the 2nd. Mate bribed him with a case of beer. The same as Radar in its infancy, as second mate all I knew was how to clean the commutators, after that had to bribe the R/O, unless was a Marconi set in which case was his problem anyway. Only person allowed to use in early days was the Master and every time was switched on had to be logged for running time. Was and still is as far as know and Aid to Navigation. Although a ship would probably not leave port nowadays without it functioning. Cheers and go easy on the Whiskey tonight, put an ice cube in it, there should be plenty outside the front door. Arriverderchi. John S.

The R/O was a company man and had some maintenance responsibilities , some of the DC Ships , in fact the majority when I was with Clan Line carried electricians . King line ships and the Clan Mc L class had no electricians , It was on a King Line Ship whee the Engineer Cadet was killed because of poor on board electrical wiring knowledge , it was thought the new blue brown green /yellow cable , that brown looked earthy so when connected the apprentice used a hand tool and died , I am fairly certain the R/o. Sparky did work on the bridge equipment

never new sparkies could be company men rob .....always thought they all worked for Marconi.....would have lost money on that bet

British & Commonwealth , which was Clan Line UCL etc. , and Sealink were company men , Gulf Oil was ex Watts Watts. And they were Marconi men . From my limited experience I thought Marconi men were often Irish , and loved a drink , all the ones I met in Gulf Oil fitted that

#23... I was only ever 2nd. mate with Runcimans Rob. We always had Marconi men usually Irish, most I heard was To be sure To be sure. If you got them tallying bags of sugar in Cuba it was only because the ship was at an anchorage and couldn't get ashore. Otherwise sometimes disappeared until sailing time and wanted their aerials putting up as soon as coming back. The Gyro was always the 2nd. Mates responsibility, what other companies did wouldn't know. I could tell you the standing orders for 2 mate in Runcimans, Was charts, Navigation, Ch. Engineers daily run speed slip etc. Chart Corrections, in port responsible for the after deck cargo load/discharge etc. Black and red time sheets with time lost etc. Demurrage, laytime etc. etc. This was a few of many which also included stripping the Gyro down every port. Different companies different ball games I suppose. Anyhow I was brainwashed by kind permission of Sir Walter Runciman and Co. Ltd. Cheers John S

#26 Sounds very familiar John

Ivan a common nick name for Skiwegians in the North sea was wooden tops. I think this would have suited some of us better. Cheers JS

I suspect that the Second Mate's job , and that of the Deck apprentice today bears no resemblance at all to that of forty + years ago , and I suspect the skill level is a great deal lower .

Wouldn't know what to do with some of the equipment on the bridge now Rob, different times different skills, but bet our time had more variety, not only what we had to know about deck and bridge equipment, but also how to treat the very varied cargoes that we carried in open stow and their varied requirements to ensure that they arrived in perfect condition, now everything (well nearly) is in containers those skills to a certain degree no longer required; doubt many youngsters know what dunnage is and how to use it properly, to many it was an innocuous piece of wood to be dumped at sea, but if not used properly could ruin certain cargoes. Glad I sailed when I did